-By Kevin Lally

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Renowned Japanese animator Hayao Miyazaki’s Ponyo was the top-grossing film in Japan last year and the country’s #8 picture of all time. Pixar co-founder and Disney animation chief John Lasseter, a devoted Miyazaki fan, has now overseen an English-language version aimed at the late-summer American kid audience. With the voices of Miley Cyrus’ sister Noah and the eight-year-old “Bonus Jonas,” Frankie Jonas, in the lead roles, the initiative may succeed, even if the film itself never reaches the heights of Miyazaki masterworks like Howl’s Moving Castle and the Oscar-winning Spirited Away.

Unlike those dense and singularly strange films, Ponyo is a more elemental tale, very loosely based on Hans Christian Andersen’s The Little Mermaid (already a hit Disney cartoon in 1989). The title character is a goldfish with a rather creepily human face, whose wanderlust leads her far away from the home of her underwater wizard father Fujimoto (voice of Liam Neeson) and her hundreds of little sisters. Stuck inside a jar, she is rescued by Sosuke (Jonas), a five-year-old boy who lives near the sea. The goldfish is smitten with her young protector and the two share an instant rapport. Fujimoto summons his magic powers to capture Ponyo and bring her back home, but the determined goldfish, who has licked the blood from a cut on Sosuke’s finger and raided her father’s hidden store of elixirs, is now able to transform herself into a little girl and rides a tsunami of fish back to her boyfriend. Unfortunately, Ponyo’s act upsets the balance of nature and threatens the co-existence of humans and the undersea population.

The film itself suffers from an imbalance between its mortal and magical characters. Fujimoto is a spooky presence who, reflecting Miyazaki’s own environmental concerns, gazes at the pollution of the sea and curses a race that ”treats your home like their empty black souls”—point taken, but he’s not the most endearing of father figures. Ponyo herself behaves like a rambunctious newborn (which indeed she is), giving Cyrus limited opportunities for her vocal performance.

It’s up to young Jonas to carry the action, and he acquits himself well as the gentle and doting Sosuke. Tina Fey is surprisingly effective as the boy’s overburdened mother Lisa, whose sea-captain husband (Matt Damon in a very minor role) is never at home. And in a delightful voice-casting decision, comedy icons Betty White, Cloris Leachman and Lily Tomlin play three feisty old ladies at the senior center where Lisa works. Despite the film’s ecological message, it’s the humans who get all the good material.

Though it’s relatively minor Miyazaki, any film by this pioneering filmmaker is worth visiting. The gorgeous 2D animation is refreshingly hands-on, and you never know when some eye-popping surreal image, like the rising waves sprouting ominous eyes, will suddenly appear. Ponyo is more a kids’ film in the tradition of early Miyazaki works like My Neighbor Totoro, but this artist’s unceasing sense of wonder is something every parent should encourage their children to experience.